Freedom
by Mockingjay Rose
Summary: Lancia and Mukuro are both tragic victims of misfortune. Over two cups of tea, they realise that they are more similar than they'd thought. AU Prompt by SkyGem and Bleach-ed-Na-tsu.


**~FREEDOM~**

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><p><strong>For SkyGem and Bleach-ed-Na-tsu. Thank you for being such amazing and supportive friends. You have been two of my greatest inspirations. I hope you enjoy this short fic.<strong>

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><p>"Did you know," Mukuro commented as he swirled his oolong-tea with a wooden chopstick, "that drinking tea can extend your life by five years?"<p>

"Does it? I guess that's a good thing then," Lancia replied with a raised eyebrow. The two were currently in a Japanese tea shop, enjoying their two-man tea party in a warm spring's morning in Northern Italy. Although the owner was Chinese, he had tried his best to mimic traditional Japanese décor, going as far as pasting rice-paper paintings of cherry blossoms onto the walls. The windows were open, allowing a breeze to pass through. Inside, two men knelt on tatami mats, conversing in the farthest corner of the room. They spoke softly, as if they were exchanging secrets.

"There was a classical Chinese philosopher named Laozi, who called it 'the froth of the liquid jade'. Tea was considered an indispensable ingredient to the elixir of life," Mukuro explained, staring at his reflection upon the water. "Modern scientists have been running experiments too. It appears that those who drink three cups of tea a day can elongate their lifespan by at least half a decade."

"Is that so?"

Mukuro smiled, running a hand through his blue hair. "Possibly. But it doesn't make much of a difference for us, I'm afraid. Not in our world. Although it does make me imagine all the possibilities a further five years could bring..."

Lancia took a sip of his green tea, deep in thought. "I'm sure you've planned out those years," he answered.

"Life is a strange thing," Mukuro mused back, "It's like a fleeting dream, or an illusion. But it's the longest thing we'll ever experience. As humans, we have the instinctive need to stay alive, to hang onto life no matter how cruel fate treats you. Why do we keep holding on, I wonder? What purpose does it serve?"

"Both fate and life are cruel."

"Yet they can be kind. Take our precious Tsunayoshi Sawada for example. He's an innocent flower, someone who still remains untainted by the mafia. He is also very much like a diamond, someone who shines bright and possesses great strength, unbreakable and unscarred by corruption. He was born to lead, to inspire others to follow his naïve ways of thinking. And then there's you and me, Lancia. We are more alike than it seems."

"Are we?"

The blue haired teenager's lip curved into a bitter smile. "We are united through pain and suffering. You understand it too well, and so do I. You understand loneliness, and the feeling of being entirely helpless. The world is an empty place, Lancia, devoid of true sympathy. We help each other, but for a payment in return. We turn a blind eye from the wretched, the homeless and the lost, wanting nothing to do with their misery when they need us the most. Yet we reach towards the fortunate, even those who are drunk with power, desiring a shard of their light."

Lancia's eyes flashed with anger, and his grip on his teacup shook. "We're different. I was happy then. There was no loneliness, no darkness imaginable. My Family was my world, my reason for living. And…you shattered that."

Mukuro gave him a pitied glance. "But I gave you freedom in the end. They lulled you with kind words and gifts, and called you their son. It was the only pleasure you had received in your childhood, and you clung onto it."

"Lies."

"Then let me tell you a story, Lancia. _My_ story. I doubt your 'Family' told you the real reason why I was adopted. No, I wasn't simply adopted - I was bought into the Family, to serve as a child slave." The blue haired teenager narrowed his heterochromatic eyes and clenched his fists. "That was my purpose. The Estraneo Family had been experimenting on children, seeking to create a generation of conditioned soldiers. It was a common dream, like world domination, but the Estraneo had the capital, subjects and the knowledge to fulfill their hubristic goals."

"And that's how you got your mismatched eyes?"

"Precisely. And within the group of forty subject children, a certain few were…'gifted'. We possessed Dying Will Flames, something rare and unknown. We became the focus of their research, stripped of normality and our basic human rights." He opened his hand, and mist flames danced upon his palm. An illusion of a blue haired child emerged, garbed in white rags. He was huddled in a fetal position, tears flowing from his eyes, and his lips were parted, crying words of agony that no one would hear. Then, as nightmares did, it vanished.

"It sounds like a twisted fantasy," Lancia said after a pause.

"It's reality. Human experimentation is a real issue in the world, and it occurs right under our noses like child prostitution and drug trafficking. The Estraneo wasn't the first to commit such atrocities, and they won't be the last. Outside the mafia, it occurred during the Second World War in Manchuria, for biological and chemical warfare research. Live human beings were dissected without anesthesia, and women were deliberately infected with syphilis. Children were forced to endure the harsh winter of Ping-Fang, so scientists could 'unfreeze' their frostbite. The 'Asian Auschwitz', the world later called it, and you'd think they'd learn about the horrors of unethical scientific research. But no, despite violating an international treaty, the winner of the war covered it up, taking the research for their own."

"How…tragic."

"Indeed it is - it's tragic beyond most people's comprehension, but the problem is that no one _wants_ to understand someone else's emotional pain and misfortune. 'It's sad', people might think briefly, 'but it doesn't affect me'. We're so used to witnessing tragedies on the news that we have become desensitised. People just accept things and stop thinking at all. And they fail to gaze deeper than outside appearances. Above all, they don't seek to find meanings themselves."

"I wonder...I wonder how I am viewed by the rest of the world. To them, I am merely a criminal, someone who had massacred his own Family. Being possessed does not erase the crimes I have committed, and I have willingly accepted my punishment. But…in Vendicare, my entire being had become a single name, a string of numbers. They cannot convey my regret, or my struggle to even forgive myself. It's...lonely, and no one can empathise."

Mukuro finished his tea, grimacing. It had turned cold. "You have said my exact words, Lancia. Has anyone wondered how we felt? I doubt it. To them, we're pernicious murderers and criminals. However, everything happens for a reason - there is always purpose behind a killing, whether it's for money, revenge or something else. I fought for self-preservation, and it led to war. Would it have been better if I remained a slave and human experiment, waiting for death? I don't think so. Why should I have to suffer instead of those who deserved it? It was me or them, and I have no regrets."

"Life is a strange thing," Lancia admitted. "While I was content with my Family, I wasn't free either. I was their bodyguard, their soldier. I did what I was told, clutching at every ray of light I could amass. And as you said, their kindness demanded a payment in return - my loyalty, mind and body. They do say that the more light there is, the greater the shadows."

"The purpose of our existence varies from person to person. For us, it may be freedom," Mukuro said.

"The freedom to make our own choices."

"The freedom to choose our own fate."

"The freedom to be who we are," they said in unison.

Mukuro refilled his cup of tea and offered his companion a wistful smile. "May you live a long, fulfilling life, Lancia."

The other man closed his eyes and nodded, feeling weight lift off his shoulders. "You too, Mukuro," he replied, "Perhaps the fate will be kinder to us in the future..."

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><p><strong>AN:** I was aiming for a light fic, but it turned out heavier than expected. Nevertheless, I hope you like it. Please review ;)


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